Personal Narrative: The Raid For Kids

I have many experiences with community service since I am very passionate about helping people and the less unfortunate. I have volunteered in many activities to help my community, for example, Eagle Scream Fest, Dia del Nino, Closet to Closet, Multicultural night and the best one Food for Families. Food for Families is a non-profit organization that distributes free food twice a month. I have been involved with this organization since the beginning which has been two years. I love volunteering with the organization because I am able to see the difference that is making to

As surprising as it may sound, I have been doing community service since the sixth grade and it is a new experience each time. It all began with a community clean up known as 'Keep McAllen Beautiful' as we got there everyone seemed excited to be there. It was beautiful to see such unity inside of my community, and I decided from then on that I would like continue helping out where it is needed. As I joined the National Honor Society my chances of providing my services increased, and I decided that I would assume a position of leadership when needed. I became the society's president, which allowed me to develop my time management skills, creativity, and efficiency. I organized an fundraiser for the hurricane Harvey disaster victims where all

As a student, I have demonstrated many works of service to my community and school. Service opportunities have shaped me into the person I am today and these projects have made me realize how fortunate I am for all that I have. While I've been doing these service projects through the years, it has been a pleasure seeing the joy on the faces of people that aren't as fortunate as I am. Service projects that I have completed include managing the fish booth at the St. Leo's Parish Festival, being an altar server at St. Leo's Parish, helping cook dinner for the Ridgway Fire Department during carnival day setup, participating in the St. Marys Light Up Night by dancing, and Christmas caroling to local residents. I also participated in a zombie/princess

Over the past year, I have served my school and community in many different ways. Whether it be through volunteering or participating in organizations that work to make changes in the lives of others. I try to stay involved in my environment. Currently, I am a student at Rockford Lutheran High School. With the multitude of clubs, my school offers, I am able to interact with other club members to promote student participation. Every year we participate in drives and fundraisers. In Key Club, each year we put together solider boxes. We collect a variety of small items and send hand packaged boxes to our fighting soldiers, as a gift for christmas. Other drives that I partake in are the canned food drives for the local food pantries, and the clothing drives to give winter clothing to those less fortunate. This helps to provide this vulnerable population with warmth during the cold winter months.

I am a member of National Honor Society. We volunteer and help people in anyway we can. So far I have about 20 hrs of community service. I helped my teacher moved everything in his class during the summer. I helped an old woman raked leaves in her backyard. I volunteered to assist my high school's registration. I lend a hand to elementary school children and basically played and watched them. I assisted a youth wrestling tournament. There are many more services in which I hoped to help out.

For my community service, I have been going to Lyndon B. Johnson Head Start Program, or LBJ. At LBJ, it is my responsibility to look after children and clean up after them. The teachers there set up many activities for the kids to work on, most of the time they finger paint. The teachers also set up small field trips. For example, we once went on a field trip to a house that had set up a pumpkin patch and many other activities for the kids. The house we went to wasn’t very far from LBJ. The children had so much fun choosing a pumpkin and playing different games, and I had fun helping them and taking care of them.

I volunteered at the Little Lights Urban Ministries. I had the pleasure of working with adults and kids but, majority were adults in a low income community. Little lights was founded in 1995 by Steven Park. Little Lights is located in Potomac Gardens public housing apartments in Washington DC. It all started off with Steven tutoring one child in an uptown neighborhood. Then he met his wife Mary and things started expanded. They started allowing 15 kids come over after school to do homework and bible study. Sometimes they would order pizza or buy chicken to feed the kids if they stayed over late. A couple of years later they was blessed with the main building and somebody donated a van for transportation. Steven then start his nonprofit and

I mainly did these volunteer service hours during my time in high school and some others in grade school that I can’t quite remember. For my first three years in high school each student had to get a certain amount of service hours. For all three years I chose Merrimac Park for the location I would choose. It was close to me and I went there often. My first year I simply walked around the park and picked up all the trash I spotted. The second year I did this but then I also asked if they would let me help in the park house as well. They said yes so whenever I came I would sweep the floors of both the hallways and the gym. The third year I was once again looking to do a little more so I offered my services as a score board operator for the youth flag football league I had once been a part of at the park. I knew the person in charge of the athletic programs at the park so he agreed. I was even allowed to ref a few games because I know the basic rules having been in the league and also playing football myself in high school. I think that year was my favorite out of the three. I loved cleaning the park but adding on the role to help out the flag football league was a blast. It was something that at the time I was passionate about and had a close tie with. To be able to help was truly an honor and made me glad I was able to volunteer my time at the

I have participated in the program Lunch Is Served, held at the First United Methodist Church in Sioux Falls. The goal of this program is to gather volunteers to pack lunches to aid the working poor, ultimately fixing the major hunger problem in Sioux Falls. I have attended this volunteer opportunity five times, and plan to volunteer again in the future. Essentially, those who participate pack as many brown paper bag lunches as possible in a streamlined fashion. Included in the bag is usually various nutritious snacks and a wrapped sandwich that will be given to those in need. My experiences there was very humbling, due to the fact that it made me realize the impact one person can have on the community. All it takes is a half hour of

Throughout my four years of high school, I worked with a non-profit organization called Shirts Across America. It worked to send high school and college students to New Orleans, Louisiana to help the community rebuild after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. For my junior and senior year, I worked as a core team member; my duties included marketing, fundraising, planning and organizing the trip and facilitating a group on the actual trip. I took on the responsibility to bring more people of color on the trips and making it more accessible for these students who may have been looked over. This past summer I worked as a teacher’s aid for the local YMCA in Seattle. The school that I was working with served a low income, diverse community.

Throughout my life I’ve been involved with many activities within my community. From volunteering to serving mass at my local church to helping with the little kids at mustard seeds. Personally, my best involvement would be volunteering for the D.A.R.E program.

I volunteered for an organization called Service Works. It’s a nationwide organization that helps young adults in developing communities to build acquired skills to prepare for college and their career paths. Service Works provide success coaches for young individuals as role models, and people that they can interact with if they have any problems, questions, or need advice regarding their career paths. Service Works is an organization that is hosted by Jersey Cares, a nonprofit organization that has been around since 1993. They recruit and engages volunteers in rewarding effective efforts that help address community-identified needs. According to Jersey Cares.org, their mission statement is to, “increases

A community service where I continually volunteer my time is the Big Brothers and Big Sisters Homework Club. I have been a part of the club for three years with the Holy Family Catholic Elementary School as a Mentor. The Homework Club is a after-school mentoring program offered to boys and girls in grades 3 to 8 who require academic, social and emotional support, and would benefit from one-to-one homework mentoring with a high school student volunteer. The Homework Club meets for one hour every week after school. Currently, I have volunteered around 80 hours with this program.

For my Service Learning project I volunteered at Larsa Banquet Hall as a server for a youth group dinner production. I refilled water pitchers, collected dirty plates and helped clean. I also volunteered for the Turlock High School play and was given the job of box office manager. I gave up my lunch period for three weeks to go sit in the PA building and sell tickets. I then had to go to all eight shows an hour early to sell tickets before house opens and stay and help sell concessions, and then after the show was over I would have to help clean up. I like to believe that both the events I volunteered for helped benefit the community by providing entertainment. They both made people laugh and whenever people left either event, they all had a smile on their face. Almost everyone I talked to after the play told me how good the cast did and asked when the next production would be. It was satisfying knowing that I had a part in these people’s happiness, even though it was a very small part.

Volunteering is my entire life, in fact it defines who I am. I spend most of my free time volunteering, whether it be spreading the word about organ donation, instilling leadership and teamwork values into young teens’ minds, or simply